There exists a need in the chiropractic, medical and para medical fields for a relatively inexpensive thermograph apparatus that can instantly display color coded representations of the temperature over some area of the human body. The general health of an individual readily affects skin temperature. Inflammation or other abnormal conditions results in higher than normal temperatures. Physiologists have determined that the temperature of the skin can vary widely. Advance medical, paramedical and surgical techniques for treatment of diseased or damaged areas of a patient make use of thermographs, that is, two dimensional representations of the temperature over an area of the body. In this way, the locations of the areas to be treated are identified. The conditions causing the abnormal temperatures can then be managed by a method chosen by the treating doctor or specialist.
Prior devices for recording thermographs have either been very large and too expensive for dedication to a practitioner's office or have provided insufficient data and in a form not easily used.
The applicants' invention is based, at least in part, upon the fact that the practitioner can easily learn to draw a paddle supporting a plurality of aligned and spaced infrared temperature sensors over an area of the body at a correct uniform rate while data is gathered at spaced intervals. Thus complicated rocking mirror devices used in prior art two-dimensional thermograph apparatus can be avoided. Also, the readings can be taken by sensors that are spaced only a short distance, say, one-quarter to one inch from the area of the body under consideration notwithstanding the contour of the body thus increasing the precision of the readings. Since it is often the temperature distribution that is important as much as the actual temperatures, it is useful to be able to quickly display a color coded thermograph illustrating the temperature distribution. It is an advantage of the applicants' invention to provide such a display on a color television screen.